The present invention relates to a coating applicator for applying a layer of coating material to a portion of an elongated shaft.
Various different coating apparatuses for coating elongated members, such as pipes and bolts, have been developed in the prior art. One type of system includes a chamber which is passed along an elongated member while coating material is applied through grooves within the chamber for coating the elongated member. Such systems are illustrated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,305,005 issued to R. E. Henry; 2,429,915 issued to W. H. Bell; and, 2,892,441 issued to D. E. Stearns.
Another type of system was developed by the assignee of the present application as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,795,224 issued to R. E. Batson et al, for coating a plurality of headed bolts. In this system, the bolts are conveyed along an assembly line and pass by a coating block which dispenses coating material into contact with the bolts. This system is designed for mass production coating of elongated members and thus, the members to be coated are rapidly conveyed along the conveying path past the coating station. As the members are so conveyed, they are rotated by the conveyor so that the applied coating material is smoothed on and spread evenly around the circumference of the bolt.
None of the above systems, however, are involved with providing a semi-automatic coating applicator for coating a limited number of elongated members. One previously developed system involved with such an objective, was developed by the assignee of the present application. In this system, a bolt was inserted through an opening in the chamber. After the bolt was inserted, a valve mechanism allowed coating material to flow through a plurality of apertures on the interior surface of the chamber so as to come into contact with the circumference of the bolt. The coated bolt was then removed by hand and another bolt inserted. Thus, the flow of coating material was controlled by a valve member located in the feedline for the coating material so that coating material only flowed when the valve was opened after insertion of the bolt.